The idea of developing a haul road manual or collection of guidelines was initiated by the late Professor Muirhead at the University of Alberta in 1999. Support and financial contributions for this work were obtained from NSERC, SMART (Surface Mining Association for Research and Technology) ATCO Power, and Finning. Both Syncrude Canada Ltd. and Suncor Ltd. provided access to road design data and methodologies. Syncrude Canada Ltd.’s internal reports were instrumental in verifying the strain-based design approach for haul roads advocated in this manual..